If you’re spending your time and energy to do it, make it noteworthy.

The Denver Broncos thought they needed a skilled player for a skill position. That’s why they got Kyle Orton from Chicago. The questions they asked themselves led them to believe they needed someone like Kyle, who had experience, a strong arm, and knew how to run a pro-style offense. Turns out they asked the wrong questions. The team went 4-12 in 2010, not even coming close to making the playoffs. The 2011 season started in similar fashion with the team losing 3 of its first 4 games.

What Denver didn’t know they needed was a leader. Someone who could rally the troops in the last two minutes of a game; someone whose tenacious belief and optimism could spread to the entire city. Enter Tim Tebow.

Many of the “experts” didn’t believe Tim had what it takes to play at the pro level. Sure, he was good in college, but the pros are a whole different ballgame. He’s too small, can’t throw, has never run a pro-style offense, and on and on. What the “experts” failed to  realize is that a humble leader can always gain knowledge and skill, but no amount of apparent knowledge and skill can make up for a lack of leadership.

Sure, the Broncos lost to the Patriots in the second round of the playoffs. But they haven’t even been to the playoffs since 2005 and Tebow doesn’t even have a full year of starting under his belt. And it wasn’t Tim Tebow who allowed the Patriots to score 45 points.

So what does this mean for the way you hire? Start by asking the right questions. What really needs to be accomplished? What education does the person really need? What experiences? What can be taught? How will we recognize the right person when we see them? How do we avoid hiring someone who looks good on paper, but can’t win in crunch time?

Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) taught us to think first “Who” and then “What.” Unfortunately, I think most of us need a refresher. Give me a handful of humble leaders and I can give them the knowledge and skills to make us successful, but  hire a roomful of rockstars and your business will still fail if they can’t, or won’t, influence others towards success.

“The ultimate measure of a [leader] is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

You know what’s even better? When they use voice recognition software. It stirs my blood to hear the electronic voice on the other end of the phone say, “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize that response. Please try again.”  In fact, it makes my whole day when I’m able to enter all of my information in the system, spend twenty minutes or more on hold, and then when a live person picks up have them ask, “May I have your account number, please.” My answer is always, “No, you can’t have my flippin’ account number, I’m a person, not a revenue source!” Then I hang up.

The problem with customer service is that we’ve forgotten that customers are people. And we are supposed to SERVE them. Interestingly, many leaders suffer from a similar problem. Ask a leader who they lead and you’ll get some funny answers.

“I lead the HR department.”

“I lead the training program”

“I lead the organization.”

Doesn’t anyone lead PEOPLE anymore? Have we forgotten that departments, programs, and organizations are really just groups of individuals with wants, dreams, needs, and aspirations? As a leader, I know how it is. We get busy, we’re focused on our Big Hairy Audacious Goals. But, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot when we unconsciously dehumanize our followers. We’re not bad people, we just need to refocus.

Try this:

The next time you meet with one of your people, spend 2 minutes before the meeting reminding yourself that they are human. Think about what their family life might be like. Imagine what their goals outside of work are. Then begin the meeting by asking a human question, and really listening to the answer, “How are you doing?” It can make all the difference in the world.

Since then three hundred years have fled,
And, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day,
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bellwether sheep,
Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him, too,
As good bellwethers always do.

And from that day, o’er hill and glade,
Through those old woods a path was made,
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged and turned and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because ‘twas such a crooked path;
But still they followed—do not laugh—
The first migrations of that calf,
And through this winding wood-way stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane,
That bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet.
The road became a village street,
And this, before men were aware
A city’s crowded thoroughfare,
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed that zigzag calf about,
And o’er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They follow still his crooked way,
And lose one hundred years a day,
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf-paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.

They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along which all their lives they move;
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf!
Ah, many things this tale might teach—
But I am not ordained to preach.

by Sam Walter Foss (1858–1911)

The same survey found that only 51% of workers are satisfied with their boss. Down from 60% two decades ago.

Besides the obvious correlation between unhappiness with one’s boss and dissatisfaction with one’s job, why do you think people are so disgruntled at work? Do you like your job? What do you like about it? Or, what don’t you like about it?

“Sorry.”

She flipped the word in my general direction as if it came off the back of her hand as it shooed me away.

photo by tuonela at the stock.xchng

I stood in the lobby of the four star hotel amazed at what had just happened. As a guest of the hotel, especially a nice hotel, especially a nice hotel in the downtown area of a major U. S. city, especially from the front desk manager of a nice hotel in the downtown area of a major U. S. city.

I expected more. I expected more than just “Sorry. We can’t help you. You don’t fit our boxes of the way guest problems should be worked out. Sorry. We won’t help you. We choose not to make an exception, to get creative, to find a way to make this right. Frankly, you’re not worth the time and energy and potential risk. Sorry. After all, I’d be putting myself on the line. I don’t know what my boss would say. Sorry.”

It’s an incredible irony that only days before my interaction with this manager, the CEO of the hotel chain said these words, “We believe in taking good care of our people and believe that if we do, they’ll take good care of the guests and the customers and they’ll return.”

Somehow the top leader’s message didn’t filter down to the everyday leaders of the company who are closest to the guests of the hotels. The real failure here was not simply a failure of customer service. The real failure was a failure of leadership.

At some level every follower, whether it’s the SVP of some important sounding function or the newest recruit to the housekeeping staff asks the question, “Why should I care?” And unless their leader gives them a compelling answer to this question they will fill in the blank themselves with, “I shouldn’t.”

Yes, preparation is important. So are logistics, sales, marketing, quality control, and so on. But fewer and fewer businesses are able to win through businesses basics. The market expects us to be high quality, to support our products, and to keep our promises. Those factors are simply the price of admission.

Moving forward it will take something creative, something remarkable, something worth talking about for your businesses to rise above the competition.

So, how are you fostering imagination in your company?

Every day creativity becomes a more critical piece of your organization’s ability to succeed. What are you doing to nurture it?

Improvement, growth, and development are all possible, but they come with a price. If we want better results, different results, faster results, greater results, more consistent results, then we have to stop doing some things and start doing others.

Change is hard. It requires wisdom (what do we change and what do we leave the same?), courage (how can we change when it seems so risky?), and discipline (but, it was so much easier the other way). But, here’s a little secret that the big boys don’t want you to know: when it comes to change, the small, lean, and hungry are able to move faster, have greater impact, and see greater results than the large, established, and well-known.

So, make change your friend. Lean on her as an ally. Change can bring you closer to your dreams. And in the long run, staying the same is not an option. The only real question is this: Will you change before it’s too late?